Koenji, the world and elsewhere

Category Archives: politics

Donald Trump is like a tornado of political cognitive dissonance, sowing destruction on (and pissing off) both sides of America’s political doppelganger dichotomy. Of course, this comes as no surprise, as he is truly a political outsider. He’s no more a Republican than Bernie Sanders is a Democrat. But both men were cognizant enough to know that there are only two roads to the White House. And no, one of them isn’t Pennsylvania Avenue. As the old joke goes, the American political system has one more party than the Soviet Union.

This is one reason there is such a backlash against him. Even with all of his supporters under the elephant’s flag he still has a vast number of opponents and detractors. Granted he has already started replenishing the swamp he promised to drain and long ago cozied up to the soulless suits at Goldman Sachs. But he is still implementing (or killing) policies, programs and agreements that must have rooms full of red ties steaming and screaming like a first year feminist at a campus rally.

I loved and hated two things he did on the same day last week: he killed the world-fucking TPP and green lit the world-fucking Keystone XL. In a political system—an entire society, in fact—anchored in an obdurate heap of two-sided issues, he is checking off items in both columns. That’s like Obama being pro-gun. A Democrat cannot be pro-gun. They must be pro-gun-control. In the same way, Trump should be pro-TPP. (Hell, even Obama was pro-TPP, further reinforcing this fake dichotomy. Two sides of the same coin, for idiots to toss and follow.)

Bernie and The Donald agreed on about half of the issues during that ridiculous reality-TV show America calls an election—they just disagreed (often greatly) on how to tackle them. He’s a narcissistic, dangerous bigot who’s probably going to leave office under impeachment or in a body bag, but at least he’s chipping away at a rotten system that needs to die.

All of America and most of the world bellowed “Holy fuck!” in unison on a Tuesday night this past November. In unison but not unified-both sides in shock. One group ecstatic, the other devastated.

In one of pastor Jeremiah Wright’s now infamous sermons rightly rebuking his homeland, he offered a dire warning, long-since obvious to those of us living in the RoW. Referring to a speech given by Malcom X almost 40 years prior, he again cautioned that America’s chickens were coming home to roost.

And although those chickens seem to have taken the long way home, they are finaly due to arrive tomorrow. Not in the form of bus bombs, Kalashnikovs, or passenger planes. A terror attack would be too simple. It would not live up to the grandiosity and pomposity that have been feeding and fattening this idiom for the past five decades.

The chickens are no longer coming. The chickens are here. And they have set their beady little eyes on the biggest roost in the land. The Oval Office. And tomorrow it will be handed over to their leader, the biggest cock of them all.

I want Donald Trump to become the next President of the United States of America. Not because I think he deserves it. Or that he is the best choice for the country. Or the world. Or that I agree with any of his politics. Or even that I think he’ll do a good job. Quite the opposite, in fact.

I think he is a disgusting, repugnant human being. He represents greed and racism and heartlessness. He is a vulgar, arrogant narcissist who is a very conceivable threat to global political stability, the quality of life in America and, most importantly, the environment. The world’s environment.

With all that said, why would I want him to win? Because he is the culmination of America. He is America. And it’s due time that America reaps what it sows. Even if such a predicament holds great potential to harm the rest of us. America needs a bigger taste of America before it will change.

Ever more felicitous are Jeremiah Wright’s words that caused such a hullabaloo during Obama’s first presidential campaign: “America’s chickens are coming home to roost.”

In the months preceding the Canadian federal election I began to see this growing trend of “acceptable prejudice” from many friends and friends of friends on Facebook. That typical Facebook World of people you know, people you knew and people you never will. But, of course, that was Stephen Harper’s election plan after all — divide and conquer. That’s why he hired the detestable and despicable Lynton Crosby to be his Campaign Manager of Propaganda & Fear. And it worked. Because it seems most people have very little capacity for independent critical thought. What I saw, day in and day out, was quite saddening. People, they really are the masses.

All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach.

I have a very low tolerance for intolerance, so most of my Facebook posts for the better part of 2015 were anti-Harper posts. And it got tiring. And heated. And somehow, Islamic cultural attire became the most important campaign issue facing the nation. I was honestly surprised at how many people are so vehemently anti-Muslim. And that this overtly racist sentiment (absolutely no different than antisemitism) is apparently quite acceptable to a great majority of people. Of Canadians. The idiotic fake driver’s license of a burka-covered face was quickly shared by an astounding number of people. Without even questioning its prejudice, let alone giving a half-second thought to its veracity.

By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a people see even heaven as hell or an extremely wretched life as paradise.

I got into more than a few debates, dialogues and arguments with friends and strangers. And I realized — it’s not worth it. So in late September I decided that after the October 19th election I’d pack up my virtual Facebook bags and take a break. A two-week vacation, in fact. Two weeks from actual Facebook time that is. And I figured that if I spend an hour a day on Facebook that amounts to 365 hours a year. And that equals 15 days — or about two weeks. So on October 21st, with a very brief post simply asking people to get hold of me via email, phone or some other avenue, I stopped visiting Facebook.

And it’s been bliss.

However, after seeing news of the attacks in Paris I logged into Facebook to check on my friends who live there. I was relieved to see both are fine. (One of their friends was actually at the Bataclan. Thankfully, she made it out okay. Physically.) I then made the mistake of glancing at my newsfeed. I saw a friend of mine, his profile pic overlayed with the French flag, had a status asking people not to spread the hate because, obviously, all Muslims are not evil terrorists. The reply from a friend was as swift and seething as it was ignorant. But this, this is now par for the course in Canada. In the West. This is blatant, vocal racism is acceptable to a great many people. And there is apparently no shame in it. It even got “likes”.

I had only to scroll down one small flick of my finger to see another post of a similar vein. But this one, she was blaming the refugees! The people running away from the chaos! Her thoughts and prayers were with the people of Paris, but not with the millions of people displaced by war outside the French capital. Heartwarming. And, of course, she had people immediately support her call to close the gates and fuck ’em all.

Anyways, two ignorant posts were more than enough. I had confirmed my friends were safe and that was my reason for being there. It was time to quietly duck back out before I had another friend warn me about evil refugees and fucking jihadis. Maybe they don’t know The Forgotten Rebels were being sarcastic when they sang Bomb The Boats.

It’s not unheard of, or even rare, nowadays in this world of clicks and impressions and maximizing the online ad revenue of every single pixel. But that doesn’t make it excusable.

Today in The Ottawa Citizen, smack dab in the middle of an open letter titled “Fear-mongering shows contempt for a politics of mutual respect”, was an ad by Christianity.com justifying the genocide and apartheid currently underway in Palestine. It is promoting the very “wedge politics” and “fear-mongering” that the letter is denouncing.

Mind you, it only showed up when I read the letter on my phone, but was not there when I checked it on my PC.

The letter is not about what is happening in Israel and Palestine, and it is safe assume that it hit upon some keywords that Christianity.com was hoping to attract: fear-mongering, Harper, barbaric practices, etc.

Still, that does not absolve the news outlet of responsibility. Unless it was intentional. Then that, of course, is a different matter altogether.